Press Review 03/29/2016

Official newspapers write about maintaining the country's security and well-being.

The non-governmental press writes about political prisoners, tourism issues and the economic crisis.

The Azadlig writes that the release of a group of political prisoners during the last pardon means a step back by the authorities. The author Akif writes that the world has strengthened a clearly negative attitude to the Azerbaijani authorities and to the country itself as a whole.

The latest pardon, says the author, is an attempt to build bridges with the West in anticipation of Ilham Aliyev’s trip to the United States.

Another reason is the attempt of Baku to receive certain financial benefits from its actions, according to the author.

It seems that sanctions prepared against Azerbaijan are rather rigid and thus real.

The Yeni Musavat brings an expert opinion about the readiness of Azerbaijan for the post-oil period. The former Minister of Finance Fikret Yusifov is quite optimistic. According to him, over the past period a lot was achieved and GDP in the non-oil sector increased.

Yusifov said that in the field of entrepreneurship the taken steps will bring results, but not soon. He argues that to get rid of dependence on oil for 5-6 years is impossible. However, in the coming years there will be major reforms in the non-oil sector.

The expert Natig Jafarli confirms that positive steps have been made in the legislation on customs and business. At the same time, very high tariffs prevent the development of entrepreneurship.

  According to him, to exit from the current situation, it is necessary to take short-term programs, as it was done in the Czech Republic, Poland and the Baltic countries. They were programs of 300 to 500 days. The expert urged the authorities to take concrete steps of the sort.

The Novoye Vremya writes about tourism opportunities of Azerbaijan. Despite the development of tourism infrastructure in several regions of the country, the prices are too high, which is unacceptable.

 Turkey has managed to raise its tourism and related services to an international level at reasonable prices. In Azerbaijan, the officials and the owners of tourist facilities only think about their own pockets. In relation to tourism, loud statements are made, but there are no practical results.